Oberlin College 2 articles published in JoVE Behavior A Method for Remotely Silencing Neural Activity in Rodents During Discrete Phases of Learning Siobhan Robinson1, Julia S. Adelman1 1Department of Neuroscience, Oberlin College This protocol describes how to temporarily and remotely silence neuronal activity in discrete brain regions while rats are engaged in learning and memory tasks. The approach combines pharmacogenetics (Designer-Receptors-Exclusively-Activated-by-Designer-Drugs) with a behavioral paradigm (sensory preconditioning) that is designed to distinguish between different components of learning. Behavior The 5-Choice Serial Reaction Time Task: A Task of Attention and Impulse Control for Rodents Samuel K. Asinof1, Tracie A. Paine1 1Department of Neuroscience, Oberlin College This protocol describes the 5-choice serial reaction time task, which is an operant based task used to study attention and impulse control in rodents. Test day challenges, which are modifications of the standard task, increase flexibility of the task and can be combined with other manipulations to more fully characterize behavior.